Highland Vols mark 60th anniversary of national AAABA title game

Dave RobackFrom left, Pat Woods, Terry O'Donnell, John Woods, Paul Champigny, Jim Connors and Tom O'Neill of the Highland Vols mark the 60th anniversary of their national title game at Anniversary Field in Holyoke.

How good was Western Massachusetts baseball in the early 1950s?

So good that two teams from this region wound up facing each other in the championship game of a national tournament.

It happened Aug. 24, 1952, when the Pittsfield Majestics scored a 9-1 victory over the Highland Vols, an entry from the Holyoke Parks League.

This marks the 60th anniversary of that title game, played in Johnstown, Pa., in a tournament hosted by the AAABA (All-America Amateur Baseball Association).

It was an era in which Pioneer Valley teams took many a tournament trip – some to Johnstown, some to Altoona, Pa. Both tourneys offered a national stage for baseball teams in the 16-18 age group.

The AAABA event still goes on, but Western Mass. presence there faded in the late 1950s as the Babe Ruth League and Little League came on strong in this area.

The Highland Vols were known as the “wunderdogs,” a Parks League championship club assembled by its 20-year-old manager, Paul Donoghue. He went on to become a Holyoke reporter for The Springfield Union, and in his later years, sports editor of The Springfield Daily News.

“Paul Dee had Speed O’Leary as our coach and James Michael Regan as our spiritual advisor,” said Pat Woods, a backup outfielder for the Vols who later played several years of baseball in the Tri-County League and for the Holyoke Knights of Columbus.

Jim “Speed” O’Leary, a St. Anselm College graduate, went on to a career as a teacher and coach. Jim Regan at that time was working for The Springfield Newspapers out of their Holyoke office. He eventually became a sportswriter for The Daily News, specializing in coverage of golf and college sports.

“It was just a great time, a memorable trip, especially for someone like me – a Chicopee guy who was welcomed by a bunch of Holyokers as their teammate,” said Jim Connors, the starting second baseman for the Vols.

AAABA rules allowed teams to add three outside players to their roster. And Holyoke Parks League rules allowed its championship team to add two players from within the league for postseason play.

So it was that Donoghue shrewdly put together a roster that included three top “outsiders” – Connors and pitcher John Stadnicki from Chicopee, and pitcher/outfielder Lou Conti, one of South Hadley’s all-time great athletes. From within the league, Donoghue added pitcher Bo Brennan and shortstop Paul Champigny.

Coach O’Leary tabbed Stadnicki to pitch Holyoke’s opener in Johnstown, and he used his “knuckle curve” to shut out Zanesville, Ohio.

Brennan? He pitched in six of Holyoke’s seven games, belted a three-run homer for a victory that kept the team alive, and was rewarded with the tournament’s Most Valuable Player Award.

“We had a great hitting club, but in the end we just ran out of pitching when it came time to play Pittsfield in the final,” Connors said.

One of the reasons was the tournament schedule – Holyoke had to play two games on the final day. The Vols, beaten 22-6 by a New York City team in its third Johnstown game, stayed alive in the double-elimination event by defeating the New Yorkers 5-3 in the morning of the tournament’s final day. Then the Vols had to go against Pittsfield, a solid team put together by Dan Healy, a longtime supporter of junior baseball in the Berkshires.

Healy had big right-hander Bruce Robarge ready to start the finale, and he responded with a 14-strikeout four-hitter.

It was a masterful performance against a lineup that had produced 49 runs in six games leading up to the finale.

Pittsfield finished the double-elimination tournament with a 6-1 record. Holyoke went 5-2.

Holyoke made it to that final day when Conti delivered a 3-0 victory over a Washington, D.C., entry. The runs came on Brennan’s homer.

“Bo made another major contribution in that game,” Pat Woods recalled. “Washington loaded the bases in the eighth inning with two outs, at which point Brennan called time and came in from his right field position to talk to Lou Conti.”

The player coming to bat, Washington’s catcher, had been Brennan’s batterymate that spring at Admiral Billard Academy in New London, Conn.

“Bo told Lou to throw sidearm to him, and he’d get him. He was right. Lou struck him out,” Pat Woods said.

First baseman Frank Leja, later a bonus-baby signee with the New York Yankees, was one of five Vols who would be part of Holyoke High School’s state championship team the following spring.

Infielders John McGinty and Jim Donoghue, and outfielders George McGarrity and Pat Woods, played with Leja on coach Ed Moriarty’s 1953 team that defeated Pittsfield 3-2 in the WMass final and Milford 7-4 for the state crown.

“You could call it redemption,” Pat Woods said, “because Pittsfield High had some of the players who beat us in Johnstown.”

Byrnes’ son, Josh, is now general manager of the National League’s San Diego Padres.

Memories? Connors has a great one to tell his grandchildren.

“I tell them that I went 2 for 4 in a game when Al Kaline (future Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer) went 2 for 5 for Maryland State of Baltimore,” he said. “Of course, one of my hits was a drag bunt, and both of Al’s were home runs.”

Pat Woods regards the Vols’ 7-5 victory over Maryland State as a major accomplishment, mainly because it came against a team that featured Kaline, who was regarded as the hottest prospect in the tournament.

“We got the go-ahead runs when Kaline tried a shoestring catch in center field on a drive by Paul Champigny. It went through him and rolled about 500 feet to the center field fence,” Pat Woods said.

Another highlight for the Holyoke entry was a 20-10 victory over Brooklyn. “We were way ahead when the game had to be stopped because of rain. Johnstown had a rule that the full nine innings had to be played. So we wound up going back to our hotel, then back to the stadium that night to finish the game,” Pat Woods said.

Brennan pitched the full extended nine.

“I was coaching third base in the late innings,” McGarrity recalled, “and Brooklyn’s third baseman said to me, ‘What’s that Brennan made of, anyway? We’ve used five pitchers in this game, and he’s been out there all day and night.’”

Although Holyoke didn’t win, Connors and his teammates have fond memories of those six days in August 1952.

“It was a terrific tournament, and the Johnstown people were great hosts,” he said. “I have nothing but good things to say about the trip, including riding there and back in a new car owned by Lou Conti’s brother.

“It’s too bad, but the tournament kind of petered out for Western Mass. teams a few years later,” he said. 